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Mexican slur has long history in politics

The slur Rep. Don Young used to refer to migrant farm workers Thursday is one that has tripped up politicians and officials from both parties for decades, a search of newspaper archives reveals. Many have been forced to apologize.

WASHINGTON — When Rep. Don Young used a slur to refer to migrant workers Thursday, he became just the latest elected official to step on a politically charged tripwire of immigration policy and identity politics.

The seven-letter word for an illegal Mexican immigrant has sparked dozens of mini-scandals over the years, from a Texas governor to a cabinet secretary. Many have been forced to apologize.

Young, a Republican congressman from Alaska, used the term while lamenting the impact automation has had on jobs.

"My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes," he said. "It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It's all done by machine." Young, 79, later apologized for the "poor choice of words, and meant no disrespect" and that the term was used commonly when he was younger.

Critics say the word — which refers to workers who came to the United States by swimming across the Rio Grande — has never been acceptable.

"It was a slur then, it's a slur now," said Lisa Navarette, a spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group. "It's never been something benign."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted a similar sentiment: "Congressman Young should fully apologize for deeply offensive comments that were not appropriate in his youth or now," she said.

The history of the term's use by politicians is long and often controversial:

In 1981, House Minority Leader Bob Michel, R-Ill., spoke to the Washington Post about division within his Republican conference. "A conservative Texan and a conservative from Illinois may be on different sides. Would I vote the same on wetbacks as a guy from Arizona?" There's no record of an apology.

In 1983, Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., complained to the Des Moines Register about his last-place showing in a straw presidential poll. "You had people from Missouri. You had wetbacks from California that came in here for (Sen. Alan) Cranston. It wasn't Iowans. And it was all bought and paid for. It was a fraud. One great, grand fraud."

Hollings' office later released a statement, which read, "I in no way intended those remarks to be a comment on Hispanics or Mexican Americans. I apologize for my choice of words, if they offended anyone."

Also in 1983, Rep. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., used the term on PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer Report to explain that not all immigrant populations are alike. "The main public perception is that we're talking about wetbacks, that we're talking about Mexican-Americans coming across the border," he said. Richardson is Hispanic, and the remark passed without controversy.

In 1990, Veterans Secretary Edward Derwinski — serving under President George H.W. Bush — used the term while campaigning for GOP congressional candidate Ally Milder in Omaha. In a speech on drug abuse, he said drug cartels use "wetbacks" to smuggle drugs into the country. After Milder denounced the statement, he apologized, calling it "just one of those dumb slips." But he also accused Milder of overreacting and having a "thin skin."

Also in 1990, Ann Richards' campaign for Texas governor faced accusations she used the word in a 1976 speech. "If it takes a man to hire non-union labor, cross picket lines and work wetbacks then I say thank God for a woman or anyone else who is willing to take over," she was alleged to have said in the speech. Richards, a Democrat, denied it and claimed her opponent fabricated that section of the speech and planted it in a Hispanic newspaper.

In 2006, Arizona state Rep. Russell Pearce came under fire for praising a 1950s deportation program known as "Operation Wetback" on a radio program. He refused to apologize. "My critics don't like history. They want to rewrite history. I didn't use the term. I quoted a successful program," he told the Arizona Republic. Pearce, later a Republican state senate president, went on to champion Arizona's controversial anti-immigration law before he was recalled in 2011.

In 2008, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported that Honolulu City Councilman Rod Tam had publicly announced that "we don't want any wetbacks, basically" on city development projects. He later said he never considered it a racial slur, and said, "I apologize if I offended anybody."